Welcome Home
by Dragonsbane1611
Summary: (SH-NLG) "I can't believe you did this, it's wonderful" Luna told him as she blew a handful of bubbles into the air and watched them fall around her.


Note: This is part of a series of little bursts of Neville and Luna goodness (NLG), and all my NLG is backstory for the epic 'Supposed Happiness' by MoonCroww. If you want to fully understand the whole situation and future events … toddle over and check it out. Thanks. ~Lady Roxyeth, Dragonsbane  
  
Welcome Home  
  
Wed.21.Jan.2004  
  
***  
  
  
  
"Do you really like it, though?" he asked, smiling as he brushed aside a stray strand of blonde hair and began rubbing her shoulders.  
  
"Like it? I love it. I love everything about it. The whole place is lovely, Neville," she exclaimed, running her hands along the porcelain edges. "Oh, and I love it when you do that." This last was a whisper that escaped as Neville worked on her shoulders and began nibbling on her neck. She bent her head down and slumped forward slightly giving him an angle to trail light kisses a little way down her spine. Biting her lip, she arched her back and sat straight again, placing her hands on his thighs.  
  
He took in the sweet scent of her hair, tied up and off her neck and shoulders. The aroma of the bubbles didn't overpower Luna's natural fragrance of strawberries, and he said, "I'm glad you like it."  
  
She closed her eyes and leaned back against his chest; muscle underneath, but a little soft on top. He let his hands slide down her arms and rest on her slightly rounded belly.  
  
"I hope our babies are just like you," he told her, looking over her shoulder at his hands.  
  
"You couldn't handle three of me," she laughed, and he scoffed.  
  
"That's nonsense and you know it. It's two more of me that I couldn't handle."  
  
"I would love to have two more of you."  
  
"With my poor memory, clumsiness, and lack of skills that are of any long-term use, no, you wouldn't. They'd be forgetting what they've forgotten and tripping over themselves trying to plant kissing daisies," he laughed, picturing the commotion sure to ensue in that circumstance.  
  
"You need to stop thinking of yourself that way," she scolded, turning her head sideways to look up at him. "I think you're wonderful. You're memory has improved with age," he winced at this, "I've not seen you clumsy since we were in school, and your knowledge of herbology plus the services you offer are an asset to our people."  
  
Neville's self-worth swelled inside his chest when he looked into her eyes. It wasn't her words alone, or the just the honesty in her eyes, but both side by side that made the difference. He kissed her, pouring all his appreciation and admiration into her with one simple act. She exhaled slowly when he pulled back.  
  
"You're welcome," she smiled, a little breathless as she turned her head forward again. Neville let his hands roam slowly over his wife's body, memorizing every contour and the feel of her soft skin against his lightly calloused palms and fingertips, as he had done many times before. There were things he wanted to say, but knew he couldn't; not while she was listening with her ears. He would whisper to her late at night, long after she'd drifted to sleep, and tell her the things of his heart and how much he really did love her; things she wouldn't understand while she was awake.  
  
He kissed her jawline as his hands continued their scrutiny. She took a deep breath and laid her head back against his shoulder.  
  
They had gotten married under the premise that they loved each other, but weren't in love. Their friendship was one they both regarded too closely to have the petty strifes of love get in the way. It was understood and accepted by both of them that their affections rested with other people. However, as fate would have it, the objects of their affection married one another and left Neville and Luna at a loss.  
  
Neville kissed and nipped at her shoulder and neck. A sharp intake of breath from the woman in his arms made him smile a little to himself; his hands had ceased their tour.  
  
Since they'd gotten married, though, it wasn't easy to keep the mask on. He had been very nervous that first night, not sure how to approach the situation. Neville was aware of what married couples did, but married couples were also supposed to be in love with each other. Luna took all of his apprehensions away, and he was never bothered with them again around her. She was his, and he was hers, and that was the way they liked it.  
  
His wife squeezed his thighs, before reaching over her shoulder and hiding her hands in his hair as he left a small plum-coloured mark on her shoulder. She breathed his name and he moved his lips to her neck.  
  
Then they bought the shop and it was the first thing they started as a 'couple'. Luna preferred the term 'entity', saying that they were no longer two, but one, each existing off of the other, and he had to agree with this. He loved the shop and she did, too. Customers or no, the time would pass all too quickly. Luna would float around the shop, humming and swaying as she worked. Sometimes, he would sit behind the front counter and just watch her go from plant to plant, checking temperatures and giving feedings. Other times, he would pretend to need her for something in the back office and call her in, only to take her atop the desk or against the wall.  
  
Neville heard his name again, only a little louder this time, and felt her nails dig into his scalp. He whispered her name in her ear, just to let her know that everything he did was for her, and only her.  
  
When Luna came into the shop in January and told him he was going to father twins, he had picked her up and spun her, for lack of a better expression of his elation. That night, she had given him a glimpse of them, both with her twinkling eyes and intoxicating laugh. He hadn't realized Luna was gifted with the Eye, and wasn't quite sure that she was even really aware. There was no other explanation for it, though, he told himself, and this, in itself, explained a lot. At times, early on in their marriage, while making love, he would get strange flashes of what he thought to be memories that weren't his: scenes of a house in a small village, sounds of children playing in the distance, and even a vague feeling of loneliness. He never gave them much thought, but once she openly shared her Sight with him, he knew. It was these memories of the yet-to-be that left him yearning for her when they weren't together and loving her with every degree of his being when they were.  
  
This time, a shout rang out, and his name echoed off the tiled walls of the bathroom and into the empty house around them. She gripped his hair and he kissed all the places he could reach.  
  
The house was the newest addition to the Longbottom family. He had sought out a home suitable for he and his wife and however many children they chose to have, and found one that he recognized as the one in Luna's vision. Somehow, he had managed to buy it without her knowing it, and, with the help of Harry and Ron and the rest of the Weasley men, all their things had been moved in and arranged before he brought her to it on this particular evening in April.  
  
"Here's to six months," he whispered in her ear as her body relaxed. She turned her head to the side again to flash him a glittering gaze before spinning to face him. Neville smiled at her as she ran her fingers through his hair again.  
  
"And here's to many more."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
©2004 – Roxanne L. Martin, Writings From Behind The Red Door 


End file.
